'Boys Are Us' (Switzerland)

*1/2 (out of four) Are all people the same? Are life and love a revolving door of identical conversations and pain? That's what 16-year-old Mia and her 18-year-old sister Laura seem to feel, so they cook up a plan for Mia to date a guy and pretend to fall in love with him as revenge against the male species as a whole. If that sounds familiar, that's because it's exactly the plot of Neil LaBute's shattering "In the Company of Men," albeit with the genders reversed and the characters far younger, when emotions are often more volatile and shallow. Writer-director Peter Luisi incoherently casts three different actors as Tim, the guy being played, and never clarifies why Laura and Mia go after the same guys during their schemes. Rather than a portrait of emotional violence and human routine, every emotion and motivation comes off as needlessly complicated. Note: Luisi is scheduled to attend all three screenings; Joelle Witschi (Mia) and Rafael Moergeli (one of the Tims) will be there Oct. 18. You'll need their explanations. See it: 6:15 p.m. Oct. 17, 8:30 p.m. Oct. 18 ($11-$14), 3:45 p.m. Oct. 19 ($5)

*1/2 (out of four) Are all people the same? Are life and love a revolving door of identical conversations and pain? That's what 16-year-old Mia and her 18-year-old sister Laura seem to feel, so they cook up a plan for Mia to date a guy and pretend to fall in love with him as revenge against the male species as a whole. If that sounds familiar, that's because it's exactly the plot of Neil LaBute's shattering "In the Company of Men," albeit with the genders reversed and the characters far younger, when emotions are often more volatile and shallow. Writer-director Peter Luisi incoherently casts three different actors as Tim, the guy being played, and never clarifies why Laura and Mia go after the same guys during their schemes. Rather than a portrait of emotional violence and human routine, every emotion and motivation comes off as needlessly complicated. Note: Luisi is scheduled to attend all three screenings; Joelle Witschi (Mia) and Rafael Moergeli (one of the Tims) will be there Oct. 18. You'll need their explanations. See it: 6:15 p.m. Oct. 17, 8:30 p.m. Oct. 18 ($11-$14), 3:45 p.m. Oct. 19 ($5)

*1/2 (out of four) Are all people the same? Are life and love a revolving door of identical conversations and pain? That's what 16-year-old Mia and her 18-year-old sister Laura seem to feel, so they cook up a plan for Mia to date a guy and pretend to fall in love with him as revenge against the male species as a whole. If that sounds familiar, that's because it's exactly the plot of Neil LaBute's shattering "In the Company of Men," albeit with the genders reversed and the characters far younger, when emotions are often more volatile and shallow. Writer-director Peter Luisi incoherently casts three different actors as Tim, the guy being played, and never clarifies why Laura and Mia go after the same guys during their schemes. Rather than a portrait of emotional violence and human routine, every emotion and motivation comes off as needlessly complicated. Note: Luisi is scheduled to attend all three screenings; Joelle Witschi (Mia) and Rafael Moergeli (one of the Tims) will be there Oct. 18. You'll need their explanations. See it: 6:15 p.m. Oct. 17, 8:30 p.m. Oct. 18 ($11-$14), 3:45 p.m. Oct. 19 ($5)